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Lucy Westenra
Lucy Westenra is a fictional character in the novel Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker. She is introduced as Mina Murray's best friend, the 19-year-old daughter of a wealthy family. Her father is mentioned in the novel when Mina says he was a sleepwalker, and her elderly mother is simply stated as being Mrs. Westenra. Lucy Westenra is a vivacious 19 year old young woman who is much praised for her beauty, purity, and sweet nature. She is described in the novel as a girl with fair hair.2 Her numerous good qualities earn her three suitors, all of whom propose to her on the same day: Arthur Holmwood, the wealthy son of Lord Godalming; Quincey Morris, an American cowboy; and Dr John Seward, a primitive psychiatrist. Lucy accepts Arthur's proposal, but soon begins suffering from severe anaemia, sleepwalking, and chronic blood loss. Alongside other strange symptoms such as enhanced sight and sound, but an adversity to sunlight that she has to have the windows covered. She has, in fact, become the victim of Count Dracula, who is slowly draining her of blood. Despite the best efforts of Dr Seward and Dr Abraham Van Helsing, Lucy's condition rapidly deteriorates. Dr Van Helsing correctly identifies the true cause of her illness and puts up garlic around her sickbed to repel Dracula. Even after four blood transfusions (from Holmwood, Seward, Van Helsing, and Morris, respectively) and despite the doctors keeping a constant watch on her condition, their efforts prove futile. By ill fortune, Lucy and her mother are left unattended when a bat and then a wolf (both of whom are under the influence of Dracula) come crashing through the window. The shock causes the mother to die from a heart attack, while Dracula invades the house and drains the defenseless Lucy of blood, almost to the point of death. The men find her barely alive the next morning, but as they try another transfusion to save her, Van Helsing sees that the bite marks on her throat have vanished, and she now has longer canine teeth: a sign that her final stages of vampirism are complete, and that there is now no way to save her. She wakes, and for a moment, when Arthur is near her, she requests a kiss in a rather uncharacteristic and lustful manner. Van Helsing pulls Arthur away, realizing that she is no longer Lucy, showcased when Lucy snarls inhumanly after she is denied her request. However, she abruptly reverts to normal and, seemingly realizing what she's becoming, begs Van Helsing to protect Arthur. He swears to do so for her sake. Soon, Lucy weakens and dies from her blood loss. Despite this, color rises to her cheeks, making her look rosier and lovelier than ever, a telling mark of vampirism. While Arthur and the other two laymen think it's all over, Van Helsing knows that death marks her final transition into the world of the undead. Lucy is interred, but not long afterwards, reports spread of children being attacked at night, each child claiming to have been abducted by a "Bloofer (or Beautiful) Lady". The children also have bite marks on their throats, though none has been seriously drained. Dr Van Helsing realizes that Lucy has now risen again as a vampire, and asks Dr Seward, Arthur and Quincey to help him destroy the undead creature. When they doubt him, Helsing takes Seward to show him first-hand that Lucy's coffin is empty, and then waits until she appears with another child. Luckily, as they watch, she takes only a little blood before flitting back to her crypt. After tending to the child, Van Helsing and Seward go into the crypt, where the coffin now contains Lucy's peacefully reclined body; but as Van Helsing points out, it hasn't decayed a day since her death, since the undead never age. That next night, Van Helsing gathers the rest of the men and applies a plaster made from consecrated hosts over Lucy's crypt while she is walking. The men wait for her until she comes back with another victim, and they see the monstrous form she has become: Pale-faced, red-eyes, hair wild and darkened and mouth dripping with blood from the child she was feeding on. They confront her and prevent another assault. Upon seeing Arthur, Lucy changes her tone to that of a seductress, beckoning him to join her so they can be a couple in undeath. Her hypnotic spell almost works until Van Helsing desperately brandishes a pectoral cross at her, and she is repelled. She flees back to her crypt, but is unable to enter until Van Helsing removes some of the plaster. Immediately, the men are astonished to see Lucy use her new supernatural powers to slip inside effortlessly despite the small opening. Deciding to wait, Helsing has the men attend to the child and reconvene on noon of the next day. They prise open the door and find Lucy seemingly at rest in her coffin. Van Helsing explains that anyone bitten by a vampire becomes a vampire in turn. Since Lucy was subsequently killed when she was drained, the change was instantaneous; as such, Lucy became corrupted and under Dracula's control, forced to feed on blood nightly to appease her inhuman hunger, while spreading the curse. In this case, to the children she has been feeding on, putting them in danger of becoming vampires themselves. But if a vampire is killed, the victim is saved and the curse is lifted from their victims if they haven't had too much blood taken. Van Helsing feels it best that the man who loved Lucy in life play a role in freeing her soul. On his instructions, Holmwood drives a wooden stake into Lucy's heart. Van Helsing knows, however, that Count Dracula can reclaim his bride by removing the stake; so to prevent this from ever happening, he saws off the ends of the stake, decapitates the body, stuffs its mouth with fresh garlic, and nails the coffin shut. Thus, the unfortunate Lucy can finally rest in peace. Lucy's death and subsequent transformation as a vampire motivate her suitors and Mina to join forces with Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker in hunting Dracula in retaliation. Category:Famous Fictional Characters Category:Gothic Art Category:Vampire Literature Category:Romance Category:Literature & Poetry